@bev: EL&U shouldn't be the first place you go. The reason for downvotes is that a question "does not show any research effort": please Google before asking future questions.
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simchona♦Oct 1 '11 at 18:00

10

@bev: EL&U is not meant to be a complicated way of getting other people to google things for you. If you have googled or done other research, but have not found satisfactory results, please explain what you found and why it's unsatisfactory or else this question will be closed.
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Mr. Shiny and New 安宇Oct 1 '11 at 18:16

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Folks, Google is not general reference. Really. I certainly don't know of a generally-available reference source specifically designed to answer this type of question - dictionaries don't generally include random phrases.
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MarthaªNov 7 '12 at 1:06

5 Answers
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According to worldwidewords.org, "dot and carry one" (as used in the book) had implications that the heart skipped a beat. This would coincide with Barrie's answer about what the true meaning is. Referencing a Captain Francis Grose in his Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue from 1785, the site also offers an alternate explanation:

(Grose also mentions hopping-Giles as another slang term of the time for a person with a limp [...])

While I'm sure OP is grateful for some kind of answer, I'm unsure how this "answer" answers OP's question. It doesn't explain what dot and carry one means in the context given. I find this answer to be incomplete and somewhat unsatisfactory.
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SoutaOct 12 '12 at 4:59

Dot and carry one is a technique used when adding numbers in a ledger. In effect you place a dot in the first column and then add a unit to the next column (known as carrying one).
Historically book keepers or accountants using pens would have made a ".1" (dot dash) sound when they updated their accounts, this sounds like a person with a limp or old fashioned prosthetic walking.
The metaphors is therefore likens the sound of a person walking with a limp or prosthetic to the "dot dash" sound a pen makes when a bookmaker adds numbers in a ledger.

Hello Brutus. Anecdotal material is not considered suitable for an 'answer' on ELU; this would make a good 'comment'. But, as all of us have found, you can't 'comment' until you've amassed a few points.
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Edwin AshworthApr 18 at 19:06